By Katie Ginn
Mississippi native and Ole Miss alum Garreth Blackwell has gone from teaching undergrad magazine design to co-founding the Maker Institute of Studio Art and Theology, based in Richmond, Virginia. The Institute offers a largely online three-year fellowship for Christian artists who, in Garreth’s words, “desire to understand more of what they do, so their output is directed more completely toward the desires of Christ for the world.”
MCL Editor Katie Ginn recently caught up with her former Ole Miss instructor and found out more about what makes the Maker Institute unique.
Katie Ginn: How did you end up in Richmond, and co-founding the Maker Institute?
Garreth Blackwell: We moved (from Mississippi) to Richmond in 2011 so I could get an interdisciplinary PhD at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCUarts). They had the number one public arts school in the country and were number two overall. I taught classes there while I got my degree.
In 2017, I had started working with a nonprofit art gallery in the city that was like an underground ministry of the church. We’d launched a podcast on visual art in 2019. What was growing out of that was a theology of the arts.
At some point I’m telling this guy named Ryan (from the gallery), we should do some online classes (to) raise money for the gallery. Then COVID hits, and he has to do it.
Then in late ’21, we launched the beta version of the Maker Institute. There were seven of us. We read a book every three weeks and wrote a paper, met for three or four hours on a Sunday afternoon and talked about it. Banged around on theology and art and the purpose of it.
In 2022, we formally incorporated the Maker Institute, and in 2024, we got our first class. We’re on our third class now.
And then last year we started making content for Made Makers, which is the K-12 art and design curriculum. It’s thoroughly biblical. It’s not a Post-It note with a Bible verse and you draw a bird. Our very first kindergarten lesson is about separating light from dark, and we go into Genesis 1-3.
KG: How is the Maker Institute structured?
GB: It’s a three-year fellowship with three levels. We have live online classes that meet most weeks, and then we have one week of intensive study here in Richmond in the fall, spring, and summer. We have cohorts where people have fellowship and encouragement and critique with each other.
Year one is heavy instruction and discussion. In year two, (students) start getting able to ask better questions. And then year three is a capstone project (that) has to face the church, and it has to face the culture. It can’t just face one way.
We used to look for 15 students a year, but with the addition of the writing program (this fall), it’s 20. We want to keep the size small. It’s based on the typical apprenticeship model in the arts. You’re matched up with people who have experience in what you do.
We have a core (curriculum of) art and theology for the first two years. The other part of the core is Professional Practices 1 and 2, and this is essentially business for artists.
We have 22 people total (serving at the Maker Institute), mostly volunteer, including seven of us on the teaching team. Combined, the teaching team has over 35 years’ teaching experience at top universities. We have several faculty members with master’s degrees and two with PhDs.
We were hoping by this point that we’d have one person full time. So the fact that we have two is a massive encouragement from the Lord. Ryan came on first, and I came on second (in August 2025).
KG: Why isn’t the Maker Institute a traditional university with degree programs?
GB: We’d have to get accredited for that, (which costs money). We’d have to pass that cost on to the students. (We) don’t want you to take out loans. We also don’t want to be beholden to the government by taking their money.
At the end of the day, if you’ve got a creative portfolio, I don’t know what you’d need the degree for, honestly. Just like in journalism: A newspaper’s not going to not hire you if you have a degree but no bylines.
Find out more about the Maker Institute of Studio Art and Theology at https://themakerinstitute.org/.